Five in less than five

Even on a busy day, you can find the time to take one of these eco-friendly actions.

Sometimes being greener, or more sustainable, or more environmentally friendly, or more (insert your eco-term here), takes some planning and some time. But, sometimes, it doesn’t.

Here are five things you can do today that won’t take any planning and won’t take you longer than five minutes.

Eat last night’s leftover dinner for breakfast. Small leftover portions sometimes go unused and end up getting thrown out. You can eat those small portions for breakfast and reduce your food waste. Remember, everything is fair game for breakfast.

Bury your coffee grounds near a rosebush, a blueberry plant or in a houseplant. You may not be set up to compost yet, but you can use your coffee grounds just as they are as a quick soil enhancer.

Capture the water coming out of the faucet while you are waiting for it to get hot in a pitcher. Leave it on the counter to use to water plants later or put it in the refrigerator for cold drinking water. You could also use it as the water to boil pasta with tonight, then use that pasta water to water your plants after it has cooled.

Use a rag to clean up spills or wipe down the counter tops instead of using disposable paper towels.

Throw those one or two overripe bananas that are sitting on your kitchen counter into the freezer. Find a banana bread recipe that you want to try. When you’ve collected enough overripe bananas in your freezer to make the recipe, bake yourself a treat (the baking will, of course, take more than five minutes – it’s the freezing of the bananas that takes less than five minutes).